Police Wrap – 18 November

ACT Policing has warned suspended drivers of the consequences of their actions when driving unlicensed on ACT roads.

Since ACT Policing’s Compliance Targeting Team (CTT) began in late October, 50 people have been detected driving while their licence has been suspended. All of these people will be summonsed to court where, if convicted, they face a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine and a mandatory driver’s licence disqualification of 12 months.

The CTT, comprising of ACT Policing officers and ACT Government representatives, are utilising the highly-successful RAPID plate-recognition system. The Team is targeting unregistered, uninsured and defective vehicles and unlicensed drivers on Canberra’s roads.

“With the new technology identifying suspended drivers and the Compliance Targeting Team working in all areas of Canberra, on both arterial roads and back streets, the chances of being caught are higher than ever, and the consequences of being caught can be severe,” said Supt Colbran.

“All of these people will be summonsed to court where, if convicted, they face a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine and a mandatory driver’s licence disqualification of 12 months.”

Now lets see some maximum fines on these cheeky buggers to help deter them and their ilk… (of course if they luck out on Justice Higgins…)

IMHO the money spent on this new equipment is far more valuable than fixed speed cameras!

The issue with these fines, is that the people who are silly enough to drive unregistered are usually people who make a lot of bad life choices – and don’t have money to pay the fines in full. From what I understand, you aren’t allowed to pay the fines off in instalments, you have to pay the whole lot at once. Many people who get these fines just continue to drive anyway, uninsured for 3rd party personal, as they don’t have the means (or feel that it’s important) to pay them off.
I know someone who has been driving un-licensed for almost 5 years and has never been caught. I don’t agree with it, but it’s true!

Clearly the numbers caught recently indicate a lack of effective traffic policing in the past. If it had been effective then we wouldn’t have had all these non payers out there on the roads.

And that lack of effective policing is directly related to coppers out there on the roads pulling up all those vehicles and drivers that arouse suspicion. Thankfully now there is a handy little bit of equipment that does the job of quite a few people.

Not true.

I would speculate that regardless of the jurisdiction if you were to compare the number of vehicles on the roads versus the number of registered vehicles there would be a similar ratio Australia wide. Can you demonstrate otherwise?

You just sit there throwing stones from your glasshouse but I bet you’ll be screaming for the Police when something distrubs your perfect world.

Clearly the numbers caught recently indicate a lack of effective traffic policing in the past. If it had been effective then we wouldn’t have had all these non payers out there on the roads.

And that lack of effective policing is directly related to coppers out there on the roads pulling up all those vehicles and drivers that arouse suspicion. Thankfully now there is a handy little bit of equipment that does the job of quite a few people.